The Noble Dram | The Ultimate Whiskey Easter Basket (Season 2 | Ep. 2)

Spring has officially sprung, and at The Noble Dram, we’re trading chocolate eggs for something a little stronger. In this Easter special, we’re building the ultimate Whiskey Easter Basket—and trust us, this one’s not for the kids.

From bright and floral pours to rich, dessert-style bourbons, we explore the perfect whiskies to match the season of renewal (and ridiculous amounts of candy). Along the way, we put Easter classics to the test with our whiskey and candy pairings and dive into springtime flavor profiles that belong next to your ham and deviled eggs.

Whether you're celebrating with family, friends, or just a quiet pour on a Sunday afternoon, this episode is your guide to springtime sips and sweet pairings.

So grab your basket, pour a dram, and join us for a holiday episode that’s equal parts Bunnys, chicks, and great whiskey.

Because at The Noble Dram… the only thing better than finding eggs… is finding the perfect pour. 🥃🐣

Aaron’s Pour: Chicken Cock - Wheated - 94 Proof
Gavin’s Pour: Rabbit Hole - Dareringer - 93 Proof

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Transcript

Aaron 0:00

Every Friday is a good Friday, but this Friday it's great because we get the day off. What that means is a little bit extra sipping on Thursday. So join us on this episode is Gavin and I talk about Easter traditions, delicious Easter candy, and even better whiskey.

Gavin 0:54

Welcome everyone to this episode of the Noble Dram. We are hopping excited about spending this evening with you. So, you know what?

Aaron 1:04

I'm ready. You're ready. I am ready. I am ready. You've been antsy about this one for a while. I have been. I've been really excited about it. Yeah. No, this is hopping happy, not hopping mad. Before we get too far in, happy good Friday, everybody. Happy Easter. We hope you're ready for a safe and wonderful holiday. There's no explosives at Easter, so you don't have to worry about blowing a finger off or anything. Well, we'll get there. Yeah. There's the years coming. We'll get there. Well, and there could be a tradition there. Who knows? That would be a new one for me, for sure. All right. Bottle number one. All right. Gavin and I made the promise to be quicker about these episodes so you can get through them before you get to work. Man, that is a pretty pretty bottle. All right. In keeping with Easter theme today, we picked chicks and bunnies. Chicks and bunnies. So the first bottle tonight is Chicken Cox Wheated Bourbon. Wheated. We like our wheated. Here, I'm gonna go ahead and take those off. Take those off. Here you go, everybody. Those were a fabulous touch. Really, really uh pulled in the feel of the holiday. I know, I know. Well, all right. I felt like they were, you know, really happy and just take it straight up over here. Yeah, I get it. I get it. It made you look a little too festive. All right. All right. This chicken cock is their wheated release. This one clocks in at 94 proof for those keeping score on the metric system. That's 50 or 47 ABB. Uh aged a minimum of five years. Um, this one's one of the fun ones. They give us a grain profile, right? Which I always enjoy. 68% corn, 20% wheat, and a whopping 12% malted barley. Uh wow. They not only tell us our grain profile, we actually know these are number four char barrels. Okay. It's a heavily charred barrel. Uh, these come in at an MSRP of $58. $58. So for those who aren't real familiar with Chickencock, um, other than being fun to say, it's actually a really, really old brand. Um, so it began by really, really, is it really really? Really, really. As I used to say as a kid, Reary. Reary, really. Reary, remote old. So uh back in the day, roosters were known for their stubborn, kind of feisty nature. So back in the late or mid-1800s, 1862, to be exact, when they opened the distillery and created the brand, roosters were often referred to as chicken cocks. So, thus the name was born. Fast forward years later, the brand actually gets sold off to a group called the Kentucky Distilleries and Warehouse Company. Um, this was kind of at that time frame in the early 1900s where a lot of these major brands were kind of consolidating these huge monopolies. And then unfortunately, Prohibition hit. Even though they continued to distill through Prohibition when they came out in the 50s, came back, the world was flooded with, let's just be honest, low-quality whiskey. And these guys kind of fell by the wayside because nobody wanted them anymore. There wasn't anything special about it. And it wasn't in 2000 until 2012 that they reopened the brand. You said 2012, right? 2012. Okay. So this is a relatively new one. Now the brand is owned by a company called Grain and Barrel Spirits, but Grain and Barrel Spirits doesn't do their own distilling. This is actually distilled at Bardstown in a collaboration between them and Grain and Barrel Spirits. Okay. So this is a, for lack of a better way to describe it, a specific type of five-year-old Bardstown bourbon. Just with a much funner name. Much more fun. I I know, I know. Fun is a game. What are you like? 12? Yes. Yeah, no, I mean, I think if if if we're telling the stories, yeah, I'm 12. I'm 12. How can you not giggle? Yeah, I I mean, let's just be honest. I get it. I get it. Um, I remember the first time I ever ordered a glass of chicken cock. We were in New Orleans at the bourbon bar on bourbon street. And um, and we walked in and they had a huge board on the wall, right? Tons of bourbons from around the world. Um it was a place called the bourbon bar. And bourbon street. And we're I'm looking at it and running down the list. I was like, yep, had it, yep, had it, yep, had it. Nope. I didn't think I've ever had chicken cock before. So I ordered a glass. Uh, I remember it being tasty. I'm trying really hard not to let that sway my thoughts about what's in this class. So as we as we delve into this, Gavin, um, we are coming up on Easter. Easter weekend is this traditional family get together. Um, everybody comes together, spends the day, the weekend, whatever. Um, so I kind of want to know what the Middle America, Oklahoma Easter upbringing was like for you. Um, so can is there when you close your eyes and think about Easter, is there something about Easter that like it's not Easter if I don't have that? Uh family.

Gavin 6:39

Right? I mean, yep, you can't really get away from it.

Aaron 6:43

Um even if you wanted to. You make it sound like you've been drawn.

Gavin 6:51

I love you. Um, no, I mean some of you, you know who you are. Uh no, I so I grew up um going to a family, like a certain side of the family, uh, primarily my my mom's side of the family. Uh my grandparents' house, their old thorough place, was on some acreage uh in Ames, Oklahoma.

Aaron 7:17

Not Ames, Iowa. I've never been to Ames, Oklahoma. Yeah, you is Ames, Oklahoma bigger or smaller than Ames, Iowa? Because I don't think Ames, Iowa is very big.

Gavin 7:25

You could blink and miss Ames, Oklahoma. In fact, fun nugget of knowledge here. Uh-oh. Uh, if memory serves me correctly and if the history is correct, my family donated the land or gave the land that Ames, Oklahoma uh is on.

Aaron 7:44

All 12 square feet of it? Yeah. Okay. Pretty close. Yeah, those are generous of you guys. Right.

Gavin 7:49

Um, so yeah, I I remember going there and um uh that side of my family uh, you know, hunted Easter eggs and those kind of things. And there were some fun tidbits about it, but I I also remember um there was like a slight hill, and we would all of Oklahoma was just a slight hill, but go on, and we'd run up and down the hill, kind of it was almost like a ditch hill kind of thing.

Aaron 8:20

But there were stickers, it was no stickers, yeah. Your socks were covered in them, yes, not not like the peel-off put on your shirt stickers. No, I mean like sticker burrs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm with you. Um, and I just remember like just being covered in those. Both I I grew up in that part of the country too.

Gavin 8:40

Yeah, and so like for some reason, like that memory sticks in my head is hunting Easter eggs and then coming out and having um sticker burrs or stickers all over your socks. Yeah, and they're hard to pick off because they hurt your fingers too. Yeah, and then you know, as a little kiddo, you're over there and you're just like, ah now.

Aaron 8:59

Easter Sunday. Oh, Easter Sunday, yep. You've come, I'm I'm assuming, came home from church. Mom is working on this big spread. Is the Gavin House a ham house? What do you what is what is Easter meal? Uh, that's a good question. I've always I've often wondered, do people eat chicken on Easter? Probably. What about rabbit? Is that okay? Feels I can't say sacrilegious because I'm not positive either chicken or the roost or the uh or the rabbit is actually religious in nature, but you know what I mean.

Gavin 9:34

I don't know. Depends on are you from gangs of New York?

Aaron 9:38

So we didn't get that fan, or you might get that uh movie reference. I I know of the movie, I don't know what you're talking about. Did they eat the dead rabbits? They they eat a lot of rabbits. Well, no, that's just part of sorry, we're going down rabbit hole here.

Gavin 9:53

Fitting. Uh go watch the movie The Dead Rabbits. You'll see what I'm saying.

Aaron 10:02

So I growing up, I always remember we had ham. Like ham was what you had on on Easter. Um I distinctly recall running into people that also had turkey again on Easter as a as a as a lover of turkey. I thought that sounded great, but we never had turkey growing up. It was always we were a ham house. You're ham hawking it? Ham house. Um no, I I I agree. Ham.

Gavin 10:28

Um and even though even though the next item is you know comes out at holiday season, I think we we still had it, and that's deviled eggs.

Aaron 10:39

Oh yeah. I actually I actually remember I was we lived in Houston for a long time. We actually ended up at a like a sports bar kind of place, and one of the appetizers they had was deviled eggs, and I ate one. And I remember thinking to myself at the moment, that's the first time I've eaten a deviled egg that wasn't made by one of my family members. Right? Like, I mean, that's the only place we ever ate deviled eggs was when you got together with a family. So um another classic debate amongst families is were you a Easter basket is waiting for you when you woke up in the morning, or was Easter basket waiting for you when you got home from church? Uh neither. What? Like we didn't have Easter nice white baskets? Well, every time I ask either our question, your answer is neither. Neither.

Gavin 11:27

Yeah, like we didn't have uh just like a basket. Like you had to work for your stuff, like in my family. You had to go out, and there was no like a basket full of treasures when I woke up.

Aaron 11:40

Oh, you probably weren't a good enough kid. Yeah, it's probably all so like we were pretty well behaved as kids. We got lots of candy. We we had to work for our candy. You had to go like it was you had to go hunt for it. It was buried in the yard, like gold like in eggs, you know, like all right, all right, all right. So see where I'm seeing. So Easter egg hunt. Yeah. Was there a period of time where like you have to stay in the house because mom and dad are gonna go hide the eggs, or did that just magically happen and you just came home and there were eggs in the yard? No, I think um like did you did you have that aunt or uncle who stopped by and dropped off all the eggs while no one was home? Well, yeah, because we we we did we did it all together.

Gavin 12:22

So, like me, my cousins and uncles and all that stuff. So it was a big thing. Like it wasn't just me hunting eggs or my brother hunting eggs, it was was it that mess?

Aaron 12:32

Was that melee where it's just absolute zoo, people fighting for eggs? Yeah, and like the young kids never got any because the ones just laying in the grass got picked up by the older kids as they ran over.

Gavin 12:42

So, my family, I think, uh initially, I think everyone kind of ran out together, but then as you know, generations grew up, we learned that it's not very fair kids.

Aaron 12:51

It is segregated Easter egg, huh?

Gavin 12:54

So like the little kids get to kind of go do their thing and then we kind of dive in.

Aaron 12:59

In the Easter eggs. Uh-huh. I grew up in an area of the country that was often cool enough on Easter for you to put chocolate in those eggs. You can't do that in Houston. I mean, you can. Odds are you have chocolate goo in your Easter eggs when you get them drug in. Um, so besides candy, was there things that tended to show up in Easter eggs? Absolutely.

Gavin 13:21

So one of the main memories of Easter that I actually have is um hunting Easter eggs at my grandparents' place, and um of the eggs would be filled with candy, some of the eggs would be filled with money and not just coins. I mean, there was like dollar bills, two dollar bills, five dollar bills.

Aaron 13:47

You guys were bougie, bougie. When you picked up the egg and shook it and it it rattled, rattled, you're like, oh, jackpot. But on the flip side, I'm sure we got like 12 cents in every egg. It was nothing, right?

Gavin 14:02

But on the flip side of that, some of my cousins and uncles and aunts may have been a little cheeky and they put sand or dirt in the egg, just rocks and they were duds, yeah.

Aaron 14:13

Oh my god.

Gavin 14:14

So like you would go come around, you see that egg, and you give a little shake, and you know it's sand or something, you put it back.

Aaron 14:20

Yeah, let the little ones get that were your other cousin that roll around and do the same thing. So did you have this? I didn't we didn't have this growing up, but then you know, you you you marry your wife, and that introduces a whole new slew of traditions. Um, my wife's family, there is one golden Easter egg for each child. And the golden egg is the is the big price, and you're only allowed to get one. Once you find a golden egg, you can't pick up any other golden eggs. And all of them had lottery tickets in it, and the kids got to go in and scratch off lottery tickets, which I thought was ridiculous because none of them could turn in a lottery ticket for winnings. I mean, it was I guess you could put anything in a lottery or in a in an egg, right? But I always thought, like, lottery tickets? Seems like an odd one to celebrate, celebrate the resurrection with. But if you win, I mean I get it. I get it. Um, it only cost a dollar. And in this day and age, that's a pretty cheap fill for an Easter egg. Fair, fair. The the egg probably costs more than the lotto ticket at this point. I assumed you lived in a house like mine that just recycled the eggs every year over and over and over again. Yeah, we may still do that. We actually got to the point where the eggs had the two pieces that were stuck together, they just popped open. Uh-huh. And so you couldn't lose half of the Easter egg because I got tired of losing. We ended up years that like it was two mismatched colors because that's just what we had in the it was like Tupperware lid in your kitchen, right? Where you're like, I don't know, I don't know what any of this stuff goes to. So, did you do hard-boiled eggs as well? Yeah, or you had to like you wrote on with a crayon and then dipped them in the is it, it's not pez, but it's something like that. Paz or something, P-A-Z was like the little dye tubs, and you ultimately ended up with just an absolute disaster on the kitchen table. Mom put down blankets and towels and newspapers filed on it, still soaked through all of it. We just we dyed everything. We had hands, we're covered in it, because you just reached in as a kid. Yeah, it was a mess. It was a mess. All right. But it's nice to know that we're not the only crazy ones out there. So I have a question for you. Uh-oh. Better be quick. We need to start talking about whiskey. As we're talking a bit more about eggs and candy.

Gavin 16:47

Okay. I kind of want to play a game with you. All right.

Aaron 16:51

I want to know your Mount Rushmore of Easter candies. Hold on, hold on. Let's save that one for the next bottle because I think this one's going to be more candy flavored. I need to get in the candy mindset. You think so? Yes, I do. I do. Complete uh explanation. I have owned many a bottle of this rabbit hole. Um, so yeah, let's let's talk candy on the next one. You want to cannot call it. No, no, I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. All right, all right. I want to talk about what's because this one to me doesn't feel candy-esque. Really? So tell me on the nose. I I've probably said too much already. Tell me what you get on the nose on this one. I get candy. What candy? Tataro. There's a gal you used to know in high school. Her name was candy.

Gavin 17:50

Maybe it's the pre-poor, still a layover from the pre-pour.

Aaron 17:54

I don't know, but you're getting chocolate on there. I think there's for real? Yeah. No, I really get a chocolate note. I don't get any chocolate. I get distinct cereal malty grape. I I the 12% malted barley actually comes through. I pick up on that on the nose.

Gavin 18:10

Also, I don't know if it's because of the pattern on the bottle. It's got honey.

Aaron 18:16

It's got a honeycomb vibe about it. Yeah. Um, yeah, I'll say I know it's chicken wire, but the honey's faint. I hadn't not actually picked up on that, though. That was chicken latex is pretty good. It's to keep your chicken in the I was gonna say something else. So uh so as we began planning this episode, um, I once again I asked my lovely wife if she would help us decorate, and she came up with all sorts of fabulous Easter goodies to put on the shelf. And then she said, Um, her and her friend raise chickens. And so she's like, You want a chicken on the episode? I was like, No, we do not want a live chicken on the episode. And she's like, I can bring it in. I was like, no, do not bring chickens into the house for an episode. Oh, I think that'd be kind of funny. Yep, but we would have we would have needed chicken wire for that for sure. Good point. Yeah, but so to me, way more sweet cereal grain, not as much chocolate. Um, but I will say I actually get I actually get a little bit more of it on the palate than I think I did on the nose. I think the palate actually kind of expands on the nose. Um they're kissing cousins, if you will. Like they're very similar, but slightly different. Okay. Um I find it neither oily nor drying. Like it is right down the middle. Boy, that's just that's funny that you said that because I literally just wrote drying or dry. Like sometimes you take a sip of whiskey and like it leaves your mouth, like I need water after that. I don't, I don't have that, but I'm also not salivating as I sit here.

Gavin 20:05

Sorry for the folks, I just swirled in my mouth.

Aaron 20:09

There are things you shouldn't say. I'm gonna figure out how to bleep things. I don't know my mouth. I don't know how to do it. Sorry, I just bleeped in my mouth. Gosh. Kolly, guys. All right, and does change the way it sounds like you'd like the whiskey. Oh my god, I just bleeped in my mouth. We're like I get on the palate as we head into the finish, I get more like bread notes. I get that.

Gavin 20:43

I get on the palate there was a slight spice to it at the beginning. Taking a drink of water and going back to it, I don't think the spice is quite as defined as it was right off the bat.

Aaron 21:02

I think the palette in and of itself is relatively mild. Right? There is a moment of oakiness that kind of hits on the finish. Um, I can I can see where you say drying from that, especially a longer swirl. There's it it does kind of dry, not in an overly oaky way, not the like you're chewing on a toothpick kind of way, but um, but certainly has an oakiness to the back end of it. Yeah, I I still agree with that. I still won't say it's very sweet though. Like on the on the nose. I was afraid you were gonna say cherry cola.

Gavin 21:40

No, I don't get much cola. Um I kind of got that again, tootsie roll, chocolate note. But then going back to it, there's a little bit more of that hay grass to it.

Aaron 21:53

Yeah, it's especially on the finish, I'm getting far more of the floral, light light wood note. Not Heavy wood, but but a light wood. Yeah, agree. All right. That's palette. Or sorry, that's that's nose, palette, and finish. Yeah. That means we've got to put a number to it. We finished. Do you have a number written down? Not yet. Oh, you better write one down. Um better write one down. All right. Let's so here this came up on a comment the other day. Um, I think it it warrants repeating. What is our rating scale? Um, so let's real quickly zero to 60 is undrinkable swill. Even if even if you offered to pay for it, I'd be like, I think I'm good. Right? That sub 60. The 60s, 60 to 69. That is a sip that I'm like, I'm not mad that I had it, but I'm not interested in paying for another one, right? If you want to buy me a glass, I'll drink it because I don't I want to be nice. But I'm I'm I'm certainly not racing out to get one. The 70s, 70 through 79. We're now in the range of I I had nothing wrong with that glass, but there was nothing that wowed me about it. Nothing that says I should go buy that bottle, right? 80s, 80 through 89, we're now talking, ooh, there's something inherently enjoyable about that bottle. I would love to have one of those in my collection. The 90s, I'll say 90 through 95. That's a really, really good whiskey. Exceptional might be the word, right? We're not perfect. No, but nobody is. But that's that's a speak for yourself. That's a whiskey that like there's there should never be a day where that's not in my collection, right? When we start getting into that range. That's when you got backups. Upper upper 90s, 96 through 99. I say 99 because there is no 100. There's always something that can make it just a wee bit better. But now we're talking in a group of like only my very closest friends who I know fully understand how great whiskey could be, will know that I have a bottle. You know, I still might not share it with them. I still might hoard that on to myself. But those very few people, and I and I'll I'll say. Those are not the same to me. I probably will tend to lean towards one of those varieties quicker than another. If they were all three in front of me, there's one that I will lean to, even though they're all 85s in their respective divisions. That's the premise. Perfect. That being said, Gavin, what is your number? I put this at an 81.

Gavin 25:16

I think that to me, the best part of this was the nose. I to me, the chocolatiness, um, the honey uh that I got on the nose really captivated me. Um, the palette was great. Um, where I struggled a bit was on the finish. I felt like it was fast and fleeting, and I didn't, I wasn't able to enjoy it quite as long as I had hoped for.

Aaron 25:47

Yeah, for for me, I think the parts of the finish that seemed to be more prominent were the parts I liked the least, and the parts that I really enjoyed about the finish, those tended to fleet away quickly. Um, I will say my score's 79. I put this just below the have a bottle range, but ironically, this is my bottle now. So um no, the to me, I expect weed weeded bourbons to be sweeter and softer and smoother. That's kind of why you drink weeded bourbons. This one didn't have that. When I when I close my eyes and I think about weeded bourbons, right? You think about the Wellers, you think about Green River, you think about the sweet wheat from Woodford's. Like you run through those in your head, you're like, all of those are soft, smooth, easy sippers. Nothing, nothing objectionable about them, right? And they said just a couple things, and I'm like, oh man, I wish it didn't have that, or I wish it had more of this. Um, so yeah, they put it just under that threshold of Vonabal for me. So uh 81. 81 79. So uh we're rapidly approaching my favorite part of the episode, is the part where Gavin pours me whiskey. But first, we're gonna take a break and let you guys see a cool little announcement from us. So we'll see you on the flip side. For the last couple weeks, we've been teasing a big announcement coming. That's right, the Noble Dram has a barrel pick.

Gavin 27:21

But we don't half-ass anything here. Not just one barrel pick, we got two.

Aaron 27:25

Larsony, barrel proof, and Elijah Craig, barrel proof. We want to give a special thanks to the guys at MR Liquor here in Northwest Houston that helped make these barrel picks possible.

Gavin 27:37

With them, we've reserved a limited number of each barrel pick for you, our noble listeners.

Aaron 27:43

For everyone who goes online, reserves a bottle before they go on sale to the general public, you get $10 off a bottle.

Gavin 27:52

Follow the link down below in the comments to reserve each one of these bottles.

Aaron 27:57

And don't miss a chance to enjoy two delicious drinks. Cheers. All right, welcome back, everybody. It is now my favorite time of every episode. I couldn't agree more. I love this. I mean, to be honest, I really enjoy the beginning. I really enjoy the end, but the part where you pour me whiskey is easily my favorite. The middle. Gavin, would you be so kind as to share a glass? I sure would. You want to share the same glass? No, let's do two separate glasses. Two separate glasses? All right. I can handle that because I got two extra glasses. I I don't know the ABV, but it's high iron hand sanitizer. So I'm I think we're safe on any communicable diseases. Let's just I think it'll play better on camera if we have separate glasses.

Gavin 28:46

All right. And can I get some quite on stage on set, whatever this is?

Aaron 28:53

Oh god, that was a good one. That is a pretty sound. Pretty pretty sound. It's a pretty bottle today. I'd be curious. All right. We should do an experiment as to does the size of the cork is it an indication of the quality of the sound? And I know how horrible that sounds. I mean, as soon as I said it, size matters. Yeah, does size matter?

Gavin 29:20

Well, it could because I mean I agree with that. I think big corks sound better. What are we sipping at?

Aaron 29:26

What are we zipping? So we're gonna go for this derails further, please.

Gavin 29:30

Uh we're gonna go uh rabbit hole. We're gonna go on a rabbit hole. We're going down the rabbit hole, down the rabbit hole till we meet uh derringer.

Aaron 29:39

All right, derringer, like the uh like the single shot revolver, yes, which is it a revolver if it's a single shot. Well, I think it's it's a pistol, it's a single shot pistol.

Gavin 29:50

It's it's a a powerful firearm, is what we're gonna call it, right?

Aaron 29:55

So, but also if you are a bank robber um fan, oh I think if I if you're a bank robber, one we're honored that you're a viewer. Start there. Um, we love everybody, but two, so judgment. Sue, change your ways, yes, drink whiskey instead. Yeah, all right. I mean, I get it. If you want allocated stuff, you gotta figure out a way to come up with some cash.

Gavin 30:22

Well, and there's people that have stolen bottles of whiskey not in banks, those are whiskey robbers, not bank robbers.

Aaron 30:32

So true, so true.

Gavin 30:34

All right, so we are sipping and nosing and tasting and all the fun things. Rabbit hole deriger. So this is a small batch straight bourbon finished in PX sherry casks. So we're gonna kind of venture into some PX sherry here. I've already written a number down, which I'm so excited about. Uh, we do know the mash bill for this as well. Oh, fun. So we are 65% corn, okay, 25% wheat.

Aaron 31:10

That leaves what, 10% greatness? And a whopping, I think is the word you used earlier. Malted barley. Yeah, but that was 12%. This is only 10. This is only all. I don't think this is I don't think this is whopping anymore. I think you gotta be what would that word be 11 and above. Left is whopping. That's that's that's the uh scoring scale. A reasonable 10%. All right. I'll give you I'll give you a reasonable.

Gavin 31:33

Uh so this is no H statement, but in some of my very detective research, you mean Chat GPT or Google AI, Google AI, maybe, and maybe some other resources. Uh there's folks out there that think it's about five-year juice. Not sure. Again, no age statement. Um, non-chill filtered and 93 proof. Okay. So fairly similar um to what we tasted previously. Yep. Uh same ball heart. So the derringer, again, we lightly touched on it. There may be a nod to the derringer pistol, which is closely related to gamblers and and risk takers.

Aaron 32:28

Yep. Yeah, yeah. No, no, it was it was the the whole reason you had a Derringer, it was one shot, but it you could conceal it easy, right? That's why I care. That's not why I can't. That's why you care. So one clip. We are in Texas. There's a pretty reasonable chance that everybody you know has a firearm, but look.

Gavin 32:47

Everybody and their kiddo probably has one.

Aaron 32:50

I think there are rules about letting your kids have guns, but other than that, I agree with you. I mean, probably.

Gavin 32:56

So the reason why I wanted to bring that up is because the founder of Rabbit Hole Distillery uh took a chance, was a risk taker, had a a bit of a gambler.

Aaron 33:09

He's a bit a bit of a gambler, yeah.

Gavin 33:11

He had a full career as a clinical psychologist, and then went down the rabbit hole to the start distillery.

Aaron 33:22

So I think I think there's a lot of similarities between therapists, psychiatrists, and bartenders. Yeah. Yeah, like that makes sense. And barbers, I would say. I'd add barbers into that. So I'm the kind of guy who can't talk at the barber anymore because they're only terming my beard, and I don't want them to screw my beard up as you're talking, so you just kind of sit there in silence for me. But maybe that's the best kind of therapy I get.

Gavin 33:48

Um, so uh Rabbit Hole um is located in the heart of New Loo, which is a district of Louisville. If you are in Louisville and you're looking for fun and interesting places to go, Rabbit Hole has a very interesting architectural character to it. Yeah, gorgeous building. Like there are some distilleries that even if they're newer um distilleries, they kind of play up that old world feel in their architectural character. No, not rabbit hole.

Aaron 34:25

Not these boys, not these boys. Check out what we did. Yeah, so highly suggest it. Very cool architectural uh elements on the building. Um little spot. We did it was high on our list of places we would like to get to and did not have time to get there. So um, it is certainly on our return trip uh agenda, which you know we'll get there, we'll get there.

Gavin 34:49

Go back and watch the previous episode where we kind of talk a little bit about, or another episode where we talk about whiskey trips. Yep.

Aaron 34:57

Yeah, absolutely. You should watch all the episodes. Yeah, absolutely. Let's I mean, you got nothing going on for the next several days, just like binge it. You got the flu? I got good news. I got great news.

Gavin 35:08

We got whiskey for that.

Aaron 35:08

Yeah, keeps the flu away. Um, all right. So we postponed my question, and I am excited. And yeah, I want to make you postpone it again, though, just because I'm that kind of guy. So you you have repeatedly called me Mr. Professor. Do you have some Easter eggs? So I said to myself as we were preparing for this episode, I better have some sort of nugget of knowledge, something worth discussing. And knowing that you were going to ask me questions when you presented your bottle, and I knew what your bottle was because, well, we we talked to each other. I this isn't a complete surprise this week. I began thinking about bunny rabbits and why are bunny rabbits the thing at Easter. Okay. So for those who don't come from ancient Germany, this might come as a surprise to you. But back in the days, there was a German tradition, a German folklore that used to have a spring goddess called Ostera. And Ostera became a tradition of the Oster hare or the Easter bunny, right? Easter hare, who would show up in the springtime to judge the children from the good and from the bad and leave presents in a nest of grass for the kids who had behaved. That's where the Easter bunny comes from. Um, which I thought was awesome. But I thought, well, wait a second. We don't we don't have nests of grass anymore. I grew up in a world of nests of plastic grass. Plastic grass. So to the world of rabbit holes, right? We all had that Easter basket or Easter bucket or whatever. Well, I shouldn't say everybody. Gavin, you didn't, but everyone else did. It was a pivotable memory of our childhood, but you missed out on it. Um, so I went and looked. I was like, where did green plastic grass come from? Only an engineer. No, no, no. So so I found out there was a gentleman by the name of Don or Don old. I'm gonna say weeder. I don't know the pronoun. W-E-D-E-R. Wadur, weeder. Weeder. I mean, we're drinking some weeders tonight. We dare it it's kind of where I thought it was, right? This guy grew up in a town of Highland, Illinois. Kariana. It's right down the street from Anjapan. This guy has almost 1400 patents.

Gavin 37:55

That's a busy man.

Aaron 37:58

That include not only green plastic grass that you put in your Easter basket, but also the clamshell Easter egg. That was one of his designs. What? And it makes him one of the most prolific patented inventors in the United States. He has over 400 more patents than Thomas Edison, who we think of as the guy who invented everything, right? So those are my two nuggets. That was the rabbit hole I got into the other day. I started researching all of this fun stuff. So wow, those were some Easter egg, if I've ever seen that. Thus ends the class. Wow. From Mr. Professor. Now, can I can answer my question now? What is your I've earned times of you wanted to know a Mount Rushmore question? So we love Rushmore.

Gavin 38:49

We love playing Mount Rushmore. Right.

Aaron 38:51

No, it's fun. It's my third favorite game.

Gavin 38:53

And fun. And in all serious and funness.

Aaron 38:57

Um, I was on a recent work trip. And is funness a word? If I'm gonna apologize for funner, I think you should apologize for funness. Not tonight.

Speaker 39:06

Not tonight.

Aaron 39:07

All right.

Gavin 39:07

Um, I was on a work trip and and um was in the car with some colleagues and some other folks, um, even even uh clients random strangers you picked up along the highway. And and two hitch. We were trying to get to know each other, and I was like, let's play Mount Rushmore of this. And it was so fun um to be in a car and to chit-chat with people, some people that I've known for a long time and some people that I haven't. And getting to know people is Mount Rushmore's.

Aaron 39:35

The more ridiculous the Mount Rushmore question becomes, the better the conversations are. It was like we were listening to music and I was driving, so it was kind of my playlist. And so it's like, what's your Mount Rushmore of music? Of Nickel Creek songs, and they're like, We don't know who that is. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Fair. You will learn, you will come into my ways. I was I was working on a project today called Lighthouse, and so I drug out the Lighthouse song and listened to it while I was working on it today, just in homage. There we go. To you and Nickel Creek. All right, so hold up. Remind me again. What was the Mount Rushmore question? Your Mount Rushmore of Easter candies. That I remember right growing up. Um, your challenge is you couldn't beat a four. Here's what I'm gonna say. I think this is an unfair one because we already talked a little bit about this at Halloween. So I'm going to take the number one candy I enjoy off of the list. Because just because you make it into the shape of an egg and you call it an Easter candy, Reese's peanut butter cups are still Reese's peanut butter cups. Although I Do you think so? Absolutely. Christmas trees at Christmas, eggs at Easter. I I get it, they're all the same. They would absolutely win number one on every list. But because I want to expand that list and not just give the same list we gave for Halloween, I'm going to tie my own hands down and say, no, I cannot pick those. So I'm gonna take that off the list. All right, I'm gonna get oddly specific, and I'm gonna give you four for them on Mount Rushmore, and I'm gonna give you one honorable mention that probably isn't on anybody's list, but I think should be. Are you breaking rules? Nope. It's an honorable mention, it doesn't make the list. All right. Number one, left spot on Mount Rushmore, the Cadbury cream egg has to be on there. Okay. It's hard to eat, it's so rich, it's so much, it's such a mess. But there's no other time of year where I ever think about eating it. Like it is an Easter egg.

Gavin 41:58

Now, do you put, do you put it in the refrigerator?

Aaron 42:02

What that cream can get a little oh no, I I kind of like I kind of like a more like I want to do like a warm, a runny egg, right? Sunny side up, right? Number two, which was a very, very close jelly beans are a classic Easter egg candy. But I'll say specifically Starburst brand jelly beans. Absolutely the best. You can tell me how great jelly bellies are and how they have um teen million flavors, but I don't care about a jelly bean that tastes like buttered popcorn. I want a jelly bean that tastes like a jelly bean, and it should taste like fruity goo. That's what a jelly bean is. Fruity goo. You heard it here, folks. It's actually, those are both real words, not like funness. So before you get all judgmental, all right. I'll say another quintessential candy that only shows up at Easter, which, as a guy who likes malted barley, how can you not love the malted milk ball of the Whoppers Robin eggs? I don't eat whoppers any other time of the year. Okay, but the candy shell over the top of a whopper in the shape of an egg, I all day long. I get eat them by the handfuls. Whether you suck all the chocolate off and then let the malted milk just kind of dissolve, or you just crunch right into them, delicious no matter how you cut it. And I'll say this is where I got close. And eking out just by a nose. Just by a hair. Yeah, okay. Just by hair. Or in this case, just by a chick, a duck, and a bunny. Sweet tarts. Chicks, bunnies, and ducks. Um This. Absolutely a great Easter candy. Here's where number five, my honorable mention comes in, and people will argue with this. Have you ever had Jordan almonds? It's an almond on the inside. It's a like a thick candy shell. They're always pastel colors. Okay. You suck them, they're absolutely phenomenal. They got a crunchy nut on the inside. Cannot go wrong. They look like little pastel Easter eggs. Can't go wrong with the crunchy nut. And we've hit rock bottom. All right. So here's where I'm going to take this a different twist. You asked me for the Mount Rushmore of the best Easter egg candies. Or Easter candies. But I actually put together a list of the worst Easter candies. And I know there's someone out there who's going to be like, hey, wait a second. You're wrong. So I would love to, if you'll indulge me, give the Mount Rushmore of the worst Easter candies. All right. Um number one. Number one, jelly beans. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is I made the list. Peeps. Oh, you're making number one. I thought you were asking me what it was. Well, no, no, you can agree with me. Just keep nodding because this is right. Number one, number one worst candy of all times, peeps. Easter or otherwise. Man, you're gonna number two. Uproar. Number two on that list, peeps. Number three on that list, peeps. Number four on that list, peeps. I'll let you look. My list is actually peeps written four times. That's how you're not. That's how bad peeps. You're not a mellow guy. Peeps are horrible garbage. No one ever is sitting around the house on a random Wednesday going, oh, I could go for a sweet treat. Let me go eat some marshmallows. If it's not next to a campfire with a chocolate bar and a good and a graham cracker, nobody eats that nonsense. Or Lucky Charms. No, those aren't real marshmallows. Uh, but they're still marshmallows. No, they say marshmallow, but that does not make them a marshmallow. Uh that I I agree with you.

Gavin 46:21

I'm not a peeps guy.

Aaron 46:22

They're garbage.

Gavin 46:23

I'm not, I'm not absolute and I don't understand the fascination. We're gonna upset some folks out there.

Aaron 46:30

If it makes you feel better, if you if you say it's not fair for me to pick four of the exact same ones, then peeps that are shaped like ducks, peeps that are shaped like chickens, peeps that are like bunnies. Like I we can do this all night. If you don't like peeps out there, you're kind of peeps. Uh yeah, yeah. Essentially, and it's hot garbage, hot garbage stuff. So, all right. I want to get back to the whiskey. Let's talk about the whiskey. So on the nose, yeah. For me, I was surprised initially, I didn't get a lot of sherry nose. Take a sip or two, and the sherry absolutely shows up all over the nose, right? I think once you get it on the palate, it's really there. That dark cherry, dark plum, raisin, all over it. Yep. It's now that you've had a couple sips, it's almost hard to taste anything but. Yeah, I agree.

Gavin 47:23

I think on the nose, uh, the raisin, there's caramel, there's brown sugars. Um after tasting it and going back to the nose, I put maple bacon.

Aaron 47:37

There's a bit of um like on the nose, you think there's maple bacon?

Gavin 47:42

Yeah, after on the palate. Well, after I nosed it, took a sip, let it set a little bit, and then went back to the nose. And then I got some maple bacon.

Aaron 47:56

Yeah, I I if you just said maybe it's because I put some of this on my maple bacon and it if you just said candied bacon, this got a little bit more of that kind of charred sugar note than maybe just straight maple bacon, maple syrup to me. But I I get it. I I don't get when you say bacon, like this doesn't have the oily aroma of bacon, like this doesn't smell like delicious pork products. Although I could see where this would go really good with an Easter ham. There's a whole lot out here. Um, yeah, yeah. This like when when you start talking about whiskies that would make really good barbecue sauce, oh, for sure, right? Um, it's it's always odd to me. Like there is such a sweetness to sherry, but there is still also a very deep, rich woodiness to it. Um, I think the tendency is to take take a nose of the glass, take a sip of the glass, and you're like, oh yeah, there's there's dark cherry. It's not artificial cherry, it's not cherry starburst. It is like the bag of bing cherries that you have to spit the seeds out, and then you realize, oh my god, I ate an entire bag, right? Like it's that kind of dark, dark cherry. Um, the Luxardo cherries that come in an old-fashioned, right? It's that kind of dark richness. Um, not quite as sweet as Luxardo cherries. I mean, they got a lot of sugar added to them, and this doesn't have quite that much, but certainly that flavor for sure.

Gavin 49:28

Um, I think it's dessert forward. I mean, I think this is a perfect whiskey to pair with your Cadbury bunnies.

Aaron 49:40

Yeah, I think more crimbolet. I think the question always comes up do you pair a sweet whiskey with sweet foods, or do you pair a sweet whiskey with a salty, savory food so it's that you get more of that contrast? Right. I think in my head, I instinctively say pair this with something savory. Yeah. Because it will make this feel even sweeter. My fear is if you were to you hear guys talk about, oh, this is so good, you can pour it over ice cream. I was like, if you poured it over ice cream, it wouldn't taste sweet anymore. The ice cream would overpower the sweetness in the whiskey, and some of what you love about the whiskey disappears. Um put paired with ice cream on here. I you start talking about like a vanilla custard as opposed to vanilla ice cream that's creamy and vanilla but not as sweet. Then I start to agree with you a lot, right? Um, yeah, I I my fear is this as a dessert sip makes tons of sense. This paired with dessert, this goes with cream cheese. This is a cheesecake dessert, right? That rich creaminess that isn't as sweet to me.

Gavin 50:52

I think I really like that pairing.

Aaron 50:54

Nope. I'm all right.

Gavin 50:56

All right. You're gonna me too. Cheesecake. With cheesecake. Graham cracker crust.

Aaron 51:02

Yeah, of course. Like what other well, I mean crustless. No. I don't like the Oreo crust. If graham cracker crust is an option, take graham cracker crust. Oreo, like if you're getting your cheesecake with chocolate drizzled and caramel drizzled and nuts sprinkled on top, you like all the other stuff but cheesecake. That's my argument. Oh, that's a whole nother battle. It's a whole like I'm just literally pissing members of the audience at every turn. This is cooling on everything. Hot take Easter episode. Didn't think it was gonna go there, but here we are.

Gavin 51:41

All right. Uh on the finish, real quick, what do we got?

Aaron 51:45

We're running out of time. Everything from the palate carries over, right? This is I don't want to say one note because I don't think it's one note. I think it's a chord. It's Microsoft. I think it I think it really, I think it really plays together, but what you get on the nose and on the on the palate and on the finish are all very similar. This doesn't deviate. Um, which I think sometimes, especially on a weeded bourbon, I think that's kind of what you expect a weeded to do, right? Um, get into single malts, yeah. I kind of expect them to scatter and go all over the place. To me, this fits that bill of a of not just what a weeded bourbon is, it's a dessert weeded bourbon. Um, the sherry notes on there are absolutely excellent. It's consistent all the way through.

Gavin 52:29

Yeah, I I agree with that. Um, I think it there's a it's almost like a warm hug.

Aaron 52:35

It's a bunny giving you a warm hug. It's a this is gonna sound really weird, but it's a warm hug from a big girl, right? That kind of just envelops everything about you. Like, I get to stay here all day. I mean, my wife's gonna listen to this episode. Like, what are you talking about? Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You don't know her, yeah. All right. So, um let's put a number to it. I so when I say I enjoy this one, I mean I really, really, really enjoy this one. Um thinking back on all our episodes, I don't know as if I've had many bottles that get to the score, but this one's a 91 for me. Oh, this one smokes. This is I'm a sherry bomb guy. I like sherry. Um, you're sherry. I'm the kind of guy that at the end of a steak dinner with a piece of cheesecake, I want a glass of porter or a glass of sherry, right? To go with it. This fits that bill for sure. Like I said, this is not a bottle I've had before. This is a bottle I've had repeatedly before. So this one is a no-brainer. This one's an absolutely gotta have it on the set. And it is, it has saddened me that here in Houston, in the last few months, this bottle has become really difficult to get a hold of. Yeah. And I am not sure exactly why. I think it just has to do with supply and demand and that kind of stuff. It felt like for a while this was an easy bottle to get a hold of. And and I I mean, you can speak to it. You went to go look for this bottle and it took you several stores to get to this bottle.

Gavin 54:11

Yeah, yeah. I um I made the mistake of not picking up this bottle when I should have. Um, I've had this bottle before, but didn't have it on the shelf to bring tonight, so I had to go pick it up. Uh, went to a store and they didn't have it, and then went to another store that's uh near my office. This was the last bottle there. Um, and as of yesterday, in the system, it said they had seven.

Aaron 54:38

So I don't know if the system was a highly shoplifted bottle, or if it was like this is this is the bottle that the ne'er do wells enjoyed. Right. Or maybe they had it in the backstock. I know, I don't know, but this was the last bottle on the shelf. Some holdback whiskey. Yeah, hold back whiskey.

Gavin 54:54

I get it. Um and if memory serves me correctly, wasn't this bottle in our recent bottle share that we did?

Aaron 55:01

Yes, yep. So no, this is that this one has come up a number of times in my life. Yeah. Um, I put it in an 86. That's a solid score. Yeah, I I really enjoy this bottle. Um, I mean, it's too low, but I it's still a solid score. My my critique is I think on the palette and the fin, there's just a it it leaves a little too soon. Yeah, but there's more in the bottle. It's hard to argue with that statement. There's always more in the bottle until it's not. Yeah, well, true. Very true. Very true.

Gavin 55:39

Right up until that last minute. Plenty of things. Regardless if you like it or not, there's always more in the bottle.

Aaron 55:44

Yeah, I you know. One of the downsides to a whiskey that is quick on the finish is that you have to keep drinking it. So if what you're wanting to do is have a have a have a glass tonight and just sit and savor with time, short finishes go counter to that, right? You have to keep sipping more and more and more. So, yeah, I that's a that's a fair complaint about the bottle. I don't think it's enough to dock it five points. I mean, come on, that's just ridiculous. But um, I mean I think we're splitting hairs here. You've been dying to use it. All right, 91 for me, 86 for Gavin, rabbit holes Derringer, an excellent sipper. All right, so a conversation we started earlier off camera that I think makes sense to have here. What if we got to pick the perfect Easter basket of whiskey? Oh, yeah. Um, that is four bottles. Let's say, let's say four. That is two, two for you to pick, two for me to pick. Okay, all right. What goes into, and and if you want to get as specific, what are the bottles you feel need to be in the basket? Why don't you pick one first and then I'll go? Okay. Um I haven't written this down, so you're gonna cheat and look in your notes, but I because I've thought about this.

Gavin 57:11

This was one of those questions that thought I've thought about for a bit. Um my number one bottle, I think, is the Glenn Maringe, the Nectar Duar.

Aaron 57:22

Yeah. So Nectar Doir, Saturns, a white dessert wine, finished scotch. It's got sweet, delicious creaminess. It makes absolute sense. When you ask the question to me, my first thought is well, it's springtime. You need a light whiskey, you want something that's taking you kind of out of the flannel weather of winter, right? Right. You want something a little lighter, a little sweeter. I like the pick at Glen Maranji. I've got no complaints there. Uh I think the notion of a weeded makes some sense.

Speaker 57:59

Yeah.

Aaron 58:00

Um, in my recent uh exposure on weeded, the bottle that jumped to my mind in the world of weeded was the old um old fitz seven-year bottled in bond weeded. The one that came in the little green velvet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very soft, very smooth. It was flavorful enough. If you wanted to put it over a couple cubes of ice, I think it still held up. If you wanted to drink it neat, I think it works, right? Um, you want to sip it by the pool? Yeah, it we put a hurting on that bottle. Easter time in Houston is that point where it could be 55, it could be 95, right? So I think you you want to for us, we need a whiskey that lives in that world, right? If you're in Scotland, live in the Isla world for a little bit longer, it's still chilly up there. Uh, yeah. So to me, weeded whiskey, old Fitzgerald, seven-year bottled and bond. That is an excellent pick. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that excellent. It gets harder because now we have two off the board.

Gavin 59:09

My biggest complaint is that is supposed to be an on the shelter every day, and you cannot find it is not, it's not allocated, it does not mean it's available, right?

Aaron 59:19

Yeah, I get you.

Gavin 59:21

Um, all right. So I think matching up to your kind of lightness of that spring kind of fruitiness. I'm gonna go red breast 12 year. Okay.

Aaron 59:39

Yeah, I I mean we did our Irish episode, and I was really kind of surprised at kind of what the single grain world uh brought in. It brought in a lot of light green grass notes, light floral stuff. I think that all makes sense in the Easter mindset. Um, all right, so you give me the tough challenge. Yeah, I have I have to round out the four. So we've got we've got light honey sweetness of glimmering's nectar dwarf. We've got the true subtle corn sweetness of old fits seven. We now have trying to think of the best way to describe the flavor profile. Yeah, it's it's light and floral of red breast 12. Some honeyness. I I think in order to round the basket out, I need that dark sweetness. Um, so as much as I want to go there, um, I feel like scotch is probably more the answer here because I want some depth to it. Um this one's a 91 in my book because it is a delicious weeded bourbon. I think if I'm making the pick, I might go Glendronic 15. Okay the Revival, a big, heavy, sherried scotch. You could make an argument for a number of the McAlens. Um in the play where it might be warm or cold, maybe Glen Scotia's double cask comes to mind. Yeah. Um, that gives you a little bit of that. If it's cooler, it gives you something to sip on. But yeah, I think I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Glindronic 15 heavy sherry bomb highland whiskey. That is a wonderful that is a basket. That's wonderful. I'm just gonna say we're really good at picking whiskeys. I'm thirsty now. Yeah, well, too bad we ran out. All right, so we find ourselves at that point of the night where we have to raise a glass. Thank you all for being here. Uh again, happy Easter. Enjoy Good Friday, enjoy the weekend off. Uh, may your ham still be juicy. Um, whether it's got pineapples on it or not, that's a whole different debate. We didn't even get into. Um, might I recommend loading it on the smoker until it shreds? Shredded ham is one of my absolute favorites. So um, until we see you guys next. Happy Easter. Cheers. Christ has risen and he is risen again. There it is. Slajeva.

Speaker 1:02:31

We want to thank you, our noble listener, for joining us. We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you. So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment. And if you have a whiskey you'd like to see us share, let us know.

Aaron 1:02:41

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Speaker 1:02:49

If you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. As always, be noble and enjoy your journey responsibly.